When political outsider Donald Trump defied polls and expectations to defeat Hillary Clinton within the 2016 US presidential election, he described the victory as “lovely.”
Not everybody noticed it that method — contemplating that Democrat Clinton had acquired almost three million extra votes nationally than her Republican rival. Non-Americans have been notably perplexed that the second-highest vote-getter can be topped president.
But Trump had performed what the US system requires: win sufficient particular person states, generally by very slim margins, to surpass the 270 Electoral College votes essential to win the White House.
Now, because the 2024 election showdown between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris approaches, the principles of this enigmatic and, to some, outmoded system is coming again into focus.
Why an Electoral College?
The 538 members of the US Electoral College collect of their state’s respective capitals after the quadrennial presidential election to designate the winner.
A presidential candidate should receive an absolute majority of the “electors” — or 270 of the 538 — to win.
The system originated with the US Constitution in 1787, establishing the principles for oblique, single-round presidential elections.
The nation’s Founding Fathers noticed the system as a compromise between direct presidential elections with common suffrage, and an election by members of Congress — an strategy rejected as insufficiently democratic.
Because many states predictably lean Republican or Democratic, presidential candidates focus closely on the handful of “swing” states on which the election will seemingly flip — almost ignoring some giant states reminiscent of left-leaning California and right-leaning Texas.
Over the years, lots of of amendments have been proposed to Congress in efforts to switch or abolish the Electoral College. None has succeeded.
Trump’s 2016 victory rekindled debate. And if the 2024 race is the nail-biter that almost all polls predict, the Electoral College will certainly return to the highlight.
Who are the 538?
Most are native elected officers or occasion leaders, however their names don’t seem on ballots.
Each state has as many electors because it has members within the US House of Representatives (a quantity depending on the state’s inhabitants) plus the Senate (two in each state, no matter dimension).
California, for instance, has 54 electors; Texas has 40; and sparsely populated Alaska, Delaware, Vermont and Wyoming have solely three every.
The US capital metropolis, Washington, additionally will get three electors, regardless of having no voting members in Congress.
The Constitution leaves it to states to determine how their electors’ votes ought to be forged. In each state however two (Nebraska and Maine, which award some electors by congressional district), the candidate profitable essentially the most votes theoretically wins all that state’s electors.
Controversial establishment
In November 2016, Trump received 306 electoral votes, effectively greater than the 270 wanted.
The extraordinary state of affairs of shedding the favored vote however profitable the White House was not unprecedented.
Five presidents have risen to the workplace this fashion, the primary being John Quincy Adams in 1824.
More not too long ago, the 2000 election resulted in an epic Florida entanglement between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.
Gore received almost 500,000 extra votes nationwide, however when Florida — in the end following a US Supreme Court intervention — was awarded to Bush, it pushed his Electoral College whole to 271 and a hair’s-breadth victory.
True vote or easy formality?
Nothing within the Constitution obliges electors to vote a method or one other.
If some states required them to respect the favored vote and so they failed to take action, they have been subjected to a easy tremendous. But in July 2020, the Supreme Court dominated that states may impose punishments on such “faithless electors.”
To date, faithless electors have by no means decided a US election final result.
Electoral College schedule
Electors will collect of their state capitals on December 17 and forged votes for president and vice chairman. US regulation states they “meet and forged their vote on the primary Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December.”
On January 6, 2025, Congress will convene to certify the winner — a nervously watched occasion this cycle, 4 years after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol trying to dam certification.
But there’s a distinction. Last time, it was Republican Vice President Mike Pence who, as president of the Senate, was answerable for overseeing the certification. Defying heavy strain from Trump and the mob, he licensed Biden’s victory.
This time, the president of the Senate — overseeing what usually can be the professional forma certification — might be none apart from at the moment’s vice chairman: Kamala Harris.
On January 20, the brand new president is to be sworn in.